Donald Trump was recently on his first trip abroad as President of the United States. The itinerary could not be more revealing: Saudi Arabia, Israel, The Vatican and Brussels.

If it is not clear to you why this is astounding , I’ll try to explain.

Trump repeated endlessly during his campaign-and many if not all of his followers believed- that he was an independent outsider, that he was not a part of the Establishment like his opponent, Hillary Clinton.

The problem is that if you participate in the election process, you automatically become part of the establishment. I have doubts as to whether he was aware of this fact but he has no excuse for not knowing, being a wealthy man with access to any information that he needs.

Everything he promised during the election campaign has turned out to be in vain, the attempt of an egotistic being of assaulting the White House for his own purposes. It seems as though he has been told in no uncertain terms what the score is: you as the president are not free to impose your views over the agenda of the Masters. Trump’s only difference with his predecessors is that he is openly blunt and doesn’t try to hide his contempt for foreign nations, other ethnicities than his own or for those Americans who don’t agree with his policies.

Mr. Trump went to close a millionaire gun deal with Saudi Arabia on his first stop. Yes, the same Saudi Arabia that breeds ISIS and beheads anyone who disagrees with them and which some countries like Sweden or Belgium have appointed as the head of the United Nations Women’s Rights Committee. They were already presiding the United Nations Human Rights Commission. After that , he went to shake hands with Netanyahu in Jerusalem and offer US support, meaning millions. Then, The Vatican. The Pope’s face was a poem. A twice divorced, thrice married man in Saint Peter’s basilica, arguably the moral reserve of the western world. His fourth stop was in Brussels, headquarters of the EU, where he was pushy, dismissive and impolite. He did not consolidate his relations with the leaders of Europe. There was nothing about him that could act as a buffer between his ego and those of his European peers.

As I have said, the difference between Trump and his predecessors is only a question of manners, not mindset. Why has he gone back on his word? Why did Obama go back on his regarding Guantánamo prison among others? How can seemingly opposite characters behave in such similar ways? You must assume that there is something greater than them that sets the pace and the policies.

Who benefits? Americans? Europeans?

Certainly not.

It’s corporations and big banks that grow through these manoeuvres because they hold the purse strings to the economy. The war against terror is not meant to be won. There are too many vested interests involved. Some corporations make money from killing off people in faraway lands and pitting sectors of western societies against each other. Divide and win. As Adam Smith wrote in his book, “The Wealth of Nations”, ‘All for me and nothing for the rest has always been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.’

Does this sound like a conspiracy theory to you?

The list of countries bombed by the USA since the Second World War exceeds twenty. The only requisites needed to provoke the wrath of the American establishment (and with it, NATO and the EU) are to stand in the way of American interests, be they resources, raw materials or strategic geographical enclaves. With the excuse of maintaining peace, they actually promote an ongoing war which results in millions of people killed, maimed and/or their houses wrecked. Entire countries succumb to the greed of the Empire, which is the greed of the powerful, obscenely rich people who see fit to keep the rest of humanity in shackles if it ensures their own boundless wealth.

However distasteful you may find the current American president, be warned: this is not the biggest problem we face.

Open your eyes to the reality we are immersed in: democracy is but a shell of its former self, deprived of all but the symbolic value of the suffrage and bombs that beat ballots into submission.